Actress Samantha Siddall joins library fight

An actress has joined calls to save a library threatened with closure. Samantha Siddall, who is best known for playing Mandy Maguire in Channel Four's Shameless, is backing the campaign to save West End library in Denton, where she lives. The branch is one of at least five which looks set to shut as Tameside council tries to shave £1m from its libraries budget. Samantha, 30, who regularly visits the library with 22-month-old son Billy, said: "The Dane Bank community doesn't get a lot at the moment and the library is one of the few things that we do have. "The children's services are very limited - we've never had a Sure Start centre. I'm fortunate, I car share with my partner, but there are other people who don't have access to a car and to travel into Hyde or Ashton by bus is expensive." Earlier this summer the council put three options out to public consultation, but all would see the closure of the five smaller neighbourhood libraries in West End, Haughton Green, Hurst, Mottram and Newton. Hundreds have joined campaign groups to save them. The council's preference is to keep the six main town libraries in Ashton, Stalybridge, Hyde, Denton, Droylsden and Dukinfield